U Mobile

U Mobile Sdn Bhd

Type	Private
Industry	Mobile Telecommunications
Founded	1998 (As MiTV Networks Sdn Bhd)
Headquarters	Berjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Key people	Tan Sri Vincent Tan Wong Heang Tuck (CEO)
Products	Mobile Data Mobile Telephony Mobile Multimedia
Number of employees	700+
Website	www.u.com.my

U Mobile Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian mobile telecommunications service provider and was founded in 1998 as MiTV Networks Sdn Bhd. U Mobile is a wholly owned subsidiary of U Television Sdn Bhd, which was formerly known as U Telecom Media Holdings Sdn Bhd and MiTV Corporation Sdn Bhd.

The company utilises the 018 and 011 prefix allocated to the organisation by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), although with the implementation of mobile number portability mandated by the Malaysian government this does not apply to subscribers who switched from their old mobile service provider over to U Mobile.^[1]

Coverage, Products and Services

On 26 May 2016, U Mobile become the first carrier in Malaysia to support Wi-Fi calling, initially only supporting iPhone owners owning iPhone 5c or later running iOS 9.3 and above. WiFi Calling for Android users are only supported on selected devices.^[2]

- U Mobile uses Maxis 2G nationwide network.

Subscribers

As of June 2015, U Mobile has over four million active customers.^[3]

Corporate History

In April 2007, U Television Sdn Bhd signed the country's first nationwide domestic roaming memorandum of understanding, which led to an agreement with the mobile network operator Celcom (M) Bhd allowing U Mobile’s customers nationwide coverage while U Mobile rolled out its own high-speed mobile 3G service nationwide.^[4] The agreement was completed in June 2007.

In December 2007, the 3G communications operators KT Freetel and NTT DoCoMo jointly invested USD$200 million (est. RM669 million) for a total of 33% stake in U Mobile.

In March 2008, U Mobile launched its first publicly available product called "Surf with U", a data-only plan for mobile users provided using U Mobile's HSDPA-driven mobile network. The following month, it rolled out its first mobile service, the postpaid U38 plan.^[5] In July, U Mobile launched two new postpaid services, U68 and U98, and the 018 Prepaid service.

In 2009, KT Freetel, one of U Mobile's foreign investors, sold its 16.5% stake (62.6 million shares) to U Mobile’s major shareholder.^[6]

In November 2012, U Mobile activated RAN Sharing with Maxis and transitioned its 2G network provider from Celcom to Maxis.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

On 31 August 2013, U Mobile announced that En. Jaffa Sany Bin Md Ariffin has been terminated as the Chief Executive Officer and ceased to be an employee of U Mobile due to disciplinary action. Accordingly, he is not authorised to act for and on behalf of the Company in respect of any matter with immediate effect. He was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of U Mobile on 1 June 2012.^[12]

On 17 December 2013, U Mobile launched its LTE network on the 2600 MHz band that covers the Klang Valley. U Mobile has currently about 2 million subscribers at the end of 2014.^[13]

In February 2014, U Mobile was awarded as the “Best Data Service Provider” award at the PC.com 13th Reader’s Choice Awards.^[14]

On 1 April 2014, U Mobile announced the appointment of Wong Heang Tuck as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective 1st April 2014, Jasmine Lee as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and Alex Tan as Chief Sales Officer (CSO) effective 1 January 2014^[15]

On 9 September 2014, U Mobile has partnered with edotco, Southeast Asia’s first independent communications infrastructure services company, to accelerate network rollout and improve customer experience.^[16]

On 4 December 2014, U Mobile extends its ongoing partnership with leading network solutions provider – ZTE Corporation and Huawei Technologies – to further upgrade and enhance its network coverage footprint, staying true to its commitment of providing superior high speed mobile experience catering to its growing pool of subscribers.^[17][18][19]

On 15 December 2014, U Mobile successfully achieving its Vision 2 Million - a campaign aimed to achieve two million new U Mobile customers by the end of 2014, earlier than expected.^[20][21]

In April 2015, U Mobile won four customer experience-related accolades at the 2015 Frost & Sullivan Excellence in Customer Experience Awards. In Frost & Sullivan’s annual Malaysia Telecommunication Services Customer Experience study, U Mobile aced the online survey conducted by the analyst to measure customer experience in the telecommunication sector in Malaysia. U Mobile took home the Best Overall Experience, Best Contact Centre Experience, Best Mobile Experience and Best Net Promoter Score awards under the ‘Excellence in Customer Experience Management, Telecommunications Industry’ category – making the telco one of the biggest winners of the night.^[22][23]

On 28 May 2015, U Mobile and Telekom Malaysia Berhad collaborated for the provisioning of backhaul connectivity services through TM Next-Gen Backhaul™ (NGBH) services as part of the telco’s continuous commitment to achieve network excellence for superior customer experience. The agreement is sealed for a period of 9 years. The collaborative deal was signed by Mohamad Rozaimy Abd. Rahman, Executive Vice President, Global & Wholesale, TM and Too Tian Jen, Chief Technology Officer, U Mobile.^[24][25][26]

On 27 August 2015, U Mobile sealed a partnership with ZTE Corporation, the leading global provider of telecommunications, equipment and network solutions, to drive the development of pre-5G and future implementation of 5G mobile network technologies locally. Under the latest collaboration, U Mobile is the first telco in Malaysia to enter into the phase of 5G network development.^[27][28][29]

On 21 December 2015, U Mobile announced that D.Y.M.M. Sultan Ibrahim Ismail Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj (“DYMM Sultan Ibrahim”) has acquired a further 5% stake in the company to increase his stake to 15%. DYMM Sultan Ibrahim acquired his initial 10% stake in U Mobile in 2014.^[30][31]

In February 2016, U Mobile confirms that it has been allocated with 15 years spectrum assignment of 2x5MHz of 900MHz and 2x15MHz of 1800MHz for full nationwide implementation starting 1 January 2017.^[32][33]

In March 2016, U Mobile announced that it has partnered with Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP) to be the Official Co-Sponsor of the Superbest Power Piala FA and Liga Premier Malaysia for three years, starting from the 2016 season. U Mobile will be the Exclusive Telecommunications Partner for the two premier football competitions. The partnership with FMLLP will give U Mobile marketing, promotion and engagement opportunities around the two competitions, in-stadium branding, corporate hospitality and use of the club and player image rights for advertising purposes.^[34][35]

Stakeholders

The major shareholder of U Mobile includes Straits Mobile Investments Pte. Ltd (49%), followed by U Telemedia Sdn Bhd (21.46%), DYMM Sultan Ibrahim (15%)^[31], Magnum Bhd (6.33%), Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun (6.2%) and Berjaya Infrastructure Sdn Bhd (2.01%).

Partners

U Mobile's partners include:

• Atos Origin: Integrator of the BSCS iX Release 2 Billing System
• LHS: Supplier of the BSCS iX Release 2 Billing System
• Ericsson: High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) solutions and management provider
• Nokia Siemens Networks: Implementation, integration, and application development of DVB-H services, including the maintenance of MiTV’s infrastructure on a turnkey basis
• Maxis: Nationwide domestic roaming partner. U Mobile is roaming on Maxis' 2G network nationwide, shares the 2100 MHz spectrum/3G network on the area outside Klang Valley, Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Penang and Negeri Sembilan.
• Rohde & Schwarz Malaysia: Supplier of low, medium and high powered digital television transmitters for the rollout implementation and coverage expansion of U Mobile’s Mobile LiveTV.
• Huawei: Telecommunication equipment provider, from access layers to core transmissions.
• ZTE: Telecommunication equipment provider
• Telekom Malaysia: Provisioning of backhaul connectivity services through TM Next-Gen Backhaul (NGBH) services^[24][25][26]

Subscribers

As of June 2015, U Mobile has over four million active customers.^[3]

References

External links

• Official website